Winter Sky, Point Reyes

Mist and spray from high surf along Point Reyes Beach beneath winter sky

I made this simply, even minimalist, photograph on the same day that I made the Tomales Bay photographs that I recently posted. After shooting at dawn along Tomales Bay I continued on into the Seashore. Since I didn’t have any particular goal in mind – sometimes it is great to shoot that way! – I first headed up a side road that I had not investigate before, and followed it to its end high on a ridgeline. From there I descended and headed out to the area of the park that is essentially a refuge for a large population of tule elk. There were tons of them and, oddly, the large number of them made photographing them less interesting than I expected.

Many of the elk were grazing along a high bluff overlook the ocean, and as I photographed the animals I kept looking out along the long beach toward the Point, barely visible through the morning mist and sea spray along the edge of the water. I intentionally excluded anything that was not blue from the photograph – even the curving strand of beach at lower left is blue from the haze. A clear day like this is somewhat unusual at Point Reyes, a place that is often fogged in, and the brilliant light filling the immense sky was a sight that I don’t recall seeing here before.